A 34-year-old ASHA worker died during childbirth at a private hospital in Uttar Pradesh’s Sonbhadra district, with her family alleging that the doctor and his team abandoned the woman in the operation theatre, with her stomach left unstitched after the C-section, and fled.
Police have booked Dr Naseem Ahmad, who allegedly performed the surgery, and members of his medical team, under BNS sections 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 318 (cheating) at Kon police station. Police have also invoked Section 34 of National Medical Commission Act, 2019.
Police have also announced a reward of Rs 25,000 for Naseem and Rs 10,000 for Salma, a nurse, an officer said.
Harsh Pandey, Circle Officer, Sonbhadra, said police teams are conducting raids to arrest the accused. He said the hospital has been sealed, adding that police are gathering records and other details about the facility from the health department.
According to police, the woman’s husband, Dev Narayan, alleged in his complaint that Seema went into labour on the night of May 29. Concerned about her condition, he rushed her to a government-run Primary Health Centre (PHC) but found no doctor on duty.
The only medical staff present was an Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (ANM), who examined Seema and administered some medicines. The ANM reportedly told the family that Seema’s condition was serious and a normal delivery appeared unlikely.
Narayan, in his complaint, said the ANM advised him to go to a private hospital in the Kon area, claiming she knew the doctors there and better treatment could be arranged. She then called a government ambulance and referred the patient to the facility.
The complainant alleged that when they reached the private hospital, he was alarmed by its condition as the infrastructure and medical arrangements appeared inadequate. Narayan claimed he expressed his concern to the hospital staff, but was ignored.
Police said Narayan claimed Dr Naseem Ahmad and his team insisted on carrying out the procedure and took his wife into the OT, where they performed a C-section and a baby boy was delivered.
The husband further claimed Seema’s condition rapidly deteriorated but the doctor failed to provide post-operative care. “Dr Naseem and his team abandoned her, leaving her abdomen unstitched, and fled. As a result, my wife died,” he alleged in the complaint.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Narayan, a farmer, claimed only three people were present at the hospital — a man who identified himself as a doctor and two women who said they were nurses.
“They did not come out for a long time. When I finally went inside (the OT), I found my wife’s body lying there,” he alleged. “She died after the baby was born. The three hospital staff members left her on the OT table and fled.”
Narayan and Seema were parents to four daughters, the eldest of whom is 11 years old.
Accusing the hospital of gross medical negligence, Narayan, in his complaint, alleged that he discovered Dr Naseem held a Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery (BAMS) degree and was not trained or licensed to conduct a major obstetric operation.
The complainant further alleged that the doctor worked through a network of associates who referred vulnerable patients to the hospital, where they were persuaded to undergo treatment for financial gain.
Police said they are probing the husband’s allegations.